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MANHATTAN, Kan. – The Kennesaw State men's basketball team pushed No. 12 Kansas State to the limit Saturday night, but could not walk away with the upset, falling to the Wildcats 56-41.
 
How it happened: After two quick jumpers from the Wildcats (1-0) to open the game, senior Kosta Jankovic responded for the Owls (1-1) scoring seven of the next nine points to give Kennesaw State an early 9-8 lead. Another jumper from senior Kyle Clarke, making his first start of the year, put KSU up by three as both teams proceeded to trade buckets, and the lead throughout most of the first half. There were six ties and six lead changes during the first half.
 
After a three-pointer from freshman Pietro Agostini gave the Owls a 25-22 lead at the 5:17 mark, Kansas State closed out the half on a 9-2 run to take a 31-27 lead into halftime. Jankovic recorded nine of his 10 points in the opening half as Kennesaw State shot 45.8 percent in the first half.
 
Despite being outscored 20-8 in the paint, the Owls did a good job defensively of shutting down Kansas State's top returning scorer, senior Dean Wade, in the first half. Wade averaged 16 points per game last season, finishing with four points over the opening 20 minutes.
 
Clarke and red-shirt junior Tyler Hooker got the Owls off on the right foot to open the second half with a steal and a three-point bucket, respectively, to pull KSU within one, 31-30. The Wildcats would respond with an 8-1 run to gain some separation, 39-31, with 14:54 to play. 
 
After a jumper from Clarke made it a two-score game, 41-37, Kansas State pulled away with a 15-2 run over the remaining eight minutes. The Owls got a lot of good looks in the second half, but couldn't get anything to fall, shooting 21 percent in the second half.
 
The Wildcats' Dean woke up in the second half, recording 11 points and six rebounds. 
 
Notes: Kosta Jankovic led the way for the Owls with 10 points … In his first appearance this season, Kyle Clarke finished with eight points, five rebounds, four steals, tying his career-high, and two assists … The Owls recorded six blocks to Kansas State's two, with Isaac Mbuyamba, Bryson Lockley, and Antonio Spencer all recording two each … Mbuyamba also paced the Owls with six rebounds, followed by Clarke and Spencer with five … Kansas State scored 20 of their points off turnovers and 24 on the fast break, as the Owls finished with 21 total turnovers. 
 
Quotes: Head Coach Al Skinner
On his thoughts about the game…
"I thought the first half the guys did a decent job, I expected us to do a better job in the second half, but we can't turn the ball over as often as we did and expect to be successful. You've got to give credit to K-State, they stayed aggressive. They established what they needed to do and I thought we created a lot of opportunities for them, particularly in transition. I thought we did a decent job in the half court, but we didn't handle the ball as well as we needed to. Unfortunately, That's going to happen with young players, and they have to experience that. You can tell them and you can tell them, but K-State gave us a good lesson today on how hard we have to work in order to execute our offense well. It's a learning experience for us and hopefully as we move forward we'll improve and be better for it."
 
On the Owls defensive play in the first half…
"We just played consistent, guys had the energy. We were probably fatigued a little bit, it didn't help from our travel yesterday, so the second half kind of got away from us. That's something we can build on. I'm pleased about that, but like I said when we bring our young players in they have to bring the same type of energy. We didn't have that consistently when we went to our bench. As the year goes on we'll get better at that."
 
Up next: The Owls head to Alabama to take on Samford Monday at 7:30 p.m.